This passage is filled with many instances of the word light, yet there is probably one example of light in the earliest reading that is a mistake for life: namely, the second light in the phrase “the light of everlasting light”. We have a fragment of the original manuscript for the latter end of this phrase, and it definitely reads light, not life. However, the dominance of light throughout the passage (as well as the phonetic similarity between light and life) readily suggests that Oliver Cowdery accidentally wrote light rather than life here in the original manuscript. There is, in fact, specific evidence that light and life can get mixed up in the text:
These two examples clearly show that life and light can be mixed up (misheard in the first case, misread in the second).
In his editing of Alma 19:6 for the 1837 edition, Joseph Smith changed the second light in “the light of everlasting light” to life, yet the 1837 compositor did not set life but retained light (perhaps accidentally). The 1852 LDS edition independently substituted life for light, and this reading has been retained in all subsequent LDS editions. The RLDS text has retained the earlier light, even though Joseph marked the change to life in the printer’s manuscript, the major source for correcting the text in the 1908 RLDS edition.
Internal evidence strongly argues that life is indeed the correct reading in Alma 19:6. First, the expression “light of everlasting light” is excessively redundant and does not make sense. Second, although there are a few occurrences in the scriptures that have the phrase “everlasting light”, in those cases the phrase “everlasting light” makes sense:
Note particularly in Alma 26:15 the contrast between “everlasting darkness” and “everlasting light”, or in the two Isaiah verses the promised replacement of the light of the sun and moon with the Lord’s everlasting light. In no instance do we get anything like the redundancy of “the light of everlasting light”.
In contrast to these legitimate occurrences of “everlasting light”, there are many occurrences of “everlasting life” in the scriptures. Besides ten occurrences in the King James New Testament (and one in the Old Testament), there are six invariant occurrences in the Book of Mormon:
And finally, David Calabro (personal communication) points out an interesting biblical parallel to the phraseology of the emended reading in Alma 19:6—namely, this passage not only contrasts darkness with light, but also has the phrase “the light of life”:
Thus Joseph Smith’s emendation to life (as well as the same change in the 1852 LDS edition) most probably restored the original text for Alma 19:6 (namely, “the light of everlasting life”).
Summary: Accept in Alma 19:6 Joseph Smith’s and the 1852 edition’s emendation of “the light of everlasting light” to “the light of everlasting life”; internal evidence and scribal errors strongly support this emendation.